Just for a moment, pretend to be one of your own customers. Ask one of your staff for something unusual, it may be for a product in an unusual colour, or for a product to be delivered or packed in an unusual way. What does your staff member say?
‘Sorry, but no?’
‘Nobody else has ever asked for that!’
‘Not possible’
‘Can’t do it’
‘I am not authorised’
‘You’ll have to call back’
‘That’s against our company policy’
‘It’s not my fault / job / concern’
The right answer to your unusual request would have been either ‘Yes’ or ‘That’s an unusual request, I’ll find out if we can do it for you’. Your staff should not believe that it is OK to say ‘No’ to a customer. If you don’t have the authority to say ‘yes’, you don’t have the authority to say ‘no’.
This thought has been taken from Graham’s book ‘Companies don’t succeed, people do!’ Graham delivers outstanding sales training – click here for details of some of his programmes.